As soon as we passed this intermediate col, we had our first views of one of my favourite alpine lakes, the glorious Lac de Roselend. which have been laid ahead of the Tour de France circus coming to town. Le trek le plus réputé est le tour du Beaufortain, mais vous allez également trouver de superbes randos accessibles à tous. It ended up a great plan to prepare for my next trip to Peru with some steep hike, technical climbing and a bit of altitude (2000m) which made cool temps very welcomed! !Much as I wanted to ride both sides of this mythical climb, today wasn’t the day, as I don’t have the training in the legs this year, however, I’ll be back again to fulfil that dream. However, I’m pleased we stopped to see it.All that remained was to follow the road back towards Beaufort & remain vigilant of the ‘gravillons’ (dodgy as you like ‘chippings’ to you & me!) The Beaufortain region is surrounded by the high mountains on all sides & is on my list of places to visit as a base for a week of riding (I picked up a route guide from the Tourist Office, so that’s now one step closer to happening! Yes, it was pretty, but after all of today’s remarkable scenery, it didn’t stand out as much as it would on any other ride. I’m usually a confident & competent descender, but this was no fun at all as for 2 miles all I could think of was ‘don’t tense your arms’, which of course made me tense my arms!!


This valley is cut off in winter and is only inhabited during the summer months. The next mile or so followed the shore of the lake & I took the opportunity to gather my mental & physical resources by suggesting a quick coffee & raspberry tart stop.After a 10 minute stop, it was time to push onward & upwards, as the scenery changed completely & the trees of the lower slopes were replaced with alpine meadows & numerous rivers plunging down the mountain to supply the lake below. What a great way to round off a brilliant day of cycling!

Le barrage de la Gittaz, construit entre 1962 et 1967 peut stocker 13 millions de m3 d'eau, sa structure à "poids arqué" à base triangulaire utilise son propre poids pour résister à la force de l'eau. La Gittaz lake: La Gittaz pastures: Beaufortain, a mountain chain adjacent to the Aravis, is well known for its excellent gruyere : the Beaufort. At 13 miles & with 4,000 feet of climbing to reach the summit, this would be my biggest challenge so far of this year’s trip.It’s a wooded, green & pretty ascent to Col de Meraillet, with views back down the valley & the gradient is a constant 7% to 8% for these first 8 miles.
If you’ve followed my previous trips, you’ll already know this is where I had the accident which smashed up my left collar bone & wrote-off the bike I had at the time. Découvrez leur périple et conseils pour un séjour réussi.Vous n'avez rien ajouté à vos coups de coeur.

Col de Meraillet, Cormet de Roselend & Col du Pre. Tag: Lac de la Gittaz.

All Alpine lakes are beautiful, but some are more so than others – the mountain to the left of the photo with its head in the clouds is Mont Blanc.We retraced our wheels back to the Route de Roselend & then took another planned side road to check out the Lac de la Gittaz, which had been recommended by someone who had visited the region previously. With many sessions ahead of me I get to try harder routes. From the summit we had huge views along the length of Lake Annecy & could even make out our hotel on the valley floor, some 2,400 feet below.

A cheval sur la Savoie et la Haute-Savoie, les possibilités de rando sont énormes. ).The aim today was to cycle part of Stage 11 in this year’s Tour de France, namely the Cormet de Roselend from Beaufort. Surface du plan d'eau 39.3 ha, profondeur 65m, longueur164m. Le massif du Beaufortain est très accessible et situé à quelques encablures du Mont Blanc. Today we jumped in the car & took a one hour drive to the small town of Beaufort, home of the famous cheese. The Beaufortain is situated South-West of the imposing bulk of Mont Blanc.